SOS 1168 Notes.txt
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM RAGTIME BAND
Vol. 4: "Sitting on Top of the World"
Stomp Off SOS 1168, 1987
LP rip (320 kbps) by Dick Baker, July 2008
PROGRAM
SIDE A
Title (Sub-title) -- Date -- Composer/Arranger -- Time
1. WORLD'S FAIR RAG -- 1912 -- Harvey M. Babcock/arr. Scott Foglesong (1985) -- 2:31
2. CANADIAN CAPERS (Fox Trot) -- 1921 -- Gus Chandler, Bert White, and Henry Cohen/arr. Frank E. Barry -- 4:33
3. THE ZONE or ON THE EXPOSITION ZONE -- 1915 -- Don J. A. (Juan Alvarado) Gono/piano arr. Chas. Albert, orch. W. L. Boletta (1984) -- 3:07
4. GRIZZLY BEAR RAG -- 1910 -- George Botsford/arr. Wm. Schulz -- 3:01
5. THE MEADOW LARK (Rag) [piano solo] -- 1916 -- Thomas Pitts -- 4:20
6. AT THE PANAMA-PACIFIC FAIR -- 1914 -- Sidney Carter (Charles N. Daniels) and Charles N. Daniels/arr. Bruce Vermazen (1982) -- 4:34
7. WHOA NELLIE (Stop Rag) -- 1916 -- George Gould/arr. anon. -- 3:37
Total: 25:43
SIDE B
1. THE ENTERTAINER'S RAG -- 1910 -- Jay (James Martin) Roberts/arr. anon. -- 2:58
2. THE YANKEE HUSTLER (A Tribute to American Progress) (March & Two Step) -- 1902 -- Hon. Eugene E. Schmitz, Mayor of San Francisco/arr. anon. -- 2:26
3. AVALON (Fox Trot or March) -- 1920 -- Al Jolson and Vincent Rose/arr. J. BodewaIt Lampe -- 3:14
4. ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY (Two Step) (Introducing "Bell Song") -- 1907 -- Gertrude Hoffman (On S.F. Bay) and Max Hoffman (Bell)/arr. W. C. O'Hare -- 1:52
5. FRISCO, YOU'RE A BEAR -- 1911 -- Arthur Don and Jack McClellan/arr. Bruce Vermazen (1982) -- 3:15
6. RAMONA (Alessandro's Love Song to Ramona) -- 1903 -- Lee Johnson/arr. anon. -- 2:42
8. O'ER THE TRAIL TO FRISCO TOWN -- 1915 -- Russell B. Rice and Banks and Breazeale/arr. anon. -- 3:37
9. MEET ME AT THE SAN FRANCISCO FAIR. NINETEEN FIFTEEN -- 1914 -- Don J. A. Gono /arr. W. L. Boletta (1979) -- 3:01
Total: 25:56
PERSONNEL
Susan Wong - violin
Debbie Persselin - violin
Myrriah Ellis - viola
Philip Groody - cello
Larry R. Delorier - flute and piccolo except on Al and 3 and B3, 4, and 6
Sharon Brooks - flute and piccolo on Al and 3 and B3, 4, and 6
Bill Tull - clarinet
Bruce Vermazen - cornet
Patricia Crossen - trombone
Scott Foglesong - piano
Bob Phillips - tuba
Will Boerner - house and stage manager
PUBLISHERS
Publisher -- Side/Cut
Harvey M. Babcock, San Francisco -- A1
Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York, NY, & Detroit, MI -- A2, A4, B3, & B7
Don J. A. Gono, San Francisco, CA -- A3 & B9
Charles N. Daniels, Music Publisher, San Francisco, CA -- A5, A6, & A7
Pacific Coast Music Co., Oakland, CA -- B1
Sam Davis, San Francisco, CA -- B2
M. Witmark and Sons, New York, NY -- B4
Wall-McClellan Publishing Co., New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and San Francisco, CA -- B5
C. R. Foster Co., Los Angeles, CA -- B6
Mohawk Music Publishing Co., Bentonville, AR -- B8
"The Yankee Hustler" is a fine cakewalk by Handsome Gene Schmitz, violinist and conductor at the Columbia, musicians' union president, mayor during the earthquake and fire of '06, and briefly a jailbird when the Bulletin exposed his administration's monumental graft. Sam Davis, who published it, was a drummer at the Tivoli Opera House, then a city supervisor who escaped prosecution by squealing on Schmitz. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Broadway/vaudeville dancer Gertrude Hoffman penned "On San Francisco Bay" for the Ziegfeld musical A Parisian Model, starring Ziegfeld's wife, Anna Held. Hoffman's spouse, Max, probably the first arranger to publish ragtime accompaniments for popular tunes (1896), had a long career in vaudeville and musicals, directing the original Ziegfeld Follies (1907) and the orchestra for the first run of Oklahoma! (1943).
About 1910, the so-called "Frisco dances" spread across the country. As modern couples twirled and hopped in the turkey trot, the bunny hug, and the Texas tommy, George Botsford immortalized perhaps the most Californian of the steps in his "Grizzly Bear Rag." The press had it that all this energy came from the Barbary Coast, San Francisco's principal, though by no means only, center of revelry and vice. Ragtime historians credit "Canadian Capers" in part or whole to the Coast's Sid Le Protti, a pianist and bandleader at the So Different Club. It originally appeared in 1915, but we play a lush fox trot version published in 1921.
1910 was also the year that San Francisco insurance man Wallie Herzer and Oakland entertainer Jay Roberts self-published "Everybody Two Step" and "The Entertainer's Rag." Local music publishers printed few rags, but several composers brought out their own work, and sometimes, as in Herzer's case, national publishers picked up and promoted regional successes. "Entertainer's Rag" was later marketed by Boston's Walter Jacobs Company. With its funny key changes, bewildering polyrhythms, and nonstandard strain lengths, it makes a great band piece.
The best of the Fair songs is from Charles N. Daniels, also known as Neil Moret, later the composer of "She's Funny That Way" and "Chloe." He had moved to California in 1912 after a midwestern publishing career that included buying Scott Joplin's first published rag, "Original Rags," for the Carl Hoffman Company and supervising Detroit operations at Remick, the most prolific rag publisher. His new California enterprise brought out pianist George Gould's rousing "Whoa Nellie" and pianist/pimp Thomas Pitts's lovely "Meadow Lark."
Southern California is represented here by "Ramona," Lee Johnson's intermezzo inspired by Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel about the clash among Spanish, Indian, and Anglo cultures in the dry country southeast of Los Angeles, and "Avalon," the hit song about L.A.'s Santa Catalina Island playground. Lee Johnson was a San Franciscan early in the century, but he ended his days in the City of Angels, as did Gertrude and Max Hoffman and Charlie Daniels. Since we are a San Francisco band, 1920 is a good place to stop; that year's census saw Los Angeles zip past our favorite city, never to look back, just about the time jazz left ragtime behind, still dancing.
--Bruce Vermazen
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the following people and institutions that made piano sheets and orchestrations available to us: Burton Benedict, the California Historical Society, John Gill, Richard Hadlock, Patricia Hall, Bob Marsh, Don Neely, the Oakland Public Library, and Ruth Sadler. The album title is adapted from Frances Moffatt's Dancing on the Brink of the World (New York, 1977). Tom Stoddard's Jazz on the Barbary Coast (Chigwell, England, 1982), and David Jasen and Trebor Tichenor's Rags and Ragtime (New York, 1978) were especially valuable sources of information. Special thanks to Dick Zimmerman, Paul Johnson, Carol St. Pierre, Wally Rose, Neil M. Daniels, and David Guthrie.
CREDITS
Recording Dates - Sept. 20 & 21, 1986; Feb. 1 & June 12, 1987
Recording Studio - Bay Records, Alameda, CA
Recording Engineer Michael Cogan
Production Supervision - Michael Cogan
Cover - David Biasotti
Typography - Philip Groody
Executive Producer - Bob Erdos
Producers - Larry R. Delorier and Bruce Vermazen
Stomp Off Records - 549 Fairview Terrace, York, PA 17403
Other recordings by The Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band:
Bringin' 'Em Back Alive (Stomp Off S.O.S. 1047)
Come On and Hear (Stomp Off S.O.S. 1079)
Preserves (Stomp Off S.O.S. 1123)
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